In short: Great atmosphere, too many people!In full: On the whole a great experience with great crowds, stadium finish, brilliant medal and goody bag. The route has a few cheeky inclines in but not massive hills. However it felt that there are too many people doing the race which caused a lot of problems. A few examples of these problems are not being able to meet up with people afterwards due to such large numbers of runners and supporters, having to wait almost an hour to get your bag after the run and some poor people having to wait over an hour to get the shuttle bus back to the city centre. At the London marathon there are more than twice the amount of runners and you can pick up your bag without even queueing at the end! I would highly recommend this run for people who want a good atmosphere, but for people in groups looking to enjoy the run and a day out together it's not much fun due to the amount of waiting around and the large crowds in and around the finish point. Date of review: March 3, 2014

In short: Poor show from organisersIn full: Our club took a bus-load of runners, plus more who travelled separately. We contacted the organisers about coach parking. They didn't bother to respond. We contacted them via Twitter, they just said: "No coach parking available" and didn't suggest any options, which I thought was poor given the club's members must have spent at least £2,000 on this race. The race itself was fine, although there were just far too many entrants for the infrastructure to handle. Great atmosphere around the streets - the folk of Reading left a very good impression.Sadly, the baggage queue was a disaster. The numbers were grouped by expected time. And the baggage was arranged by number. That meant all the people who finished at around the same time were heading for the same section of the baggage tent. While some of the baggage tents were empty, the queue for the men's 1-5,000 section was packed - with a queue snaked around the race village as we froze in our space blankets.Then there was the queue for the shuttle buses. We waited an hour before giving up and walking back to town. I was so angry to see shuttle buses going past with a few empty seats and no-one standing. How unfair on those freezing further behind in the queue.On the plus side, it was a very nice medal. But I've no desire to ever go near this race again.Date of review: March 3, 2014

In short: Greedy Sweatshop companyIn full: This race is organised by Sweatshop and they have too many runners in order to make a profit. Not enough staff or buses, this race has a great history but is quickly losing its good reputation that it had. lots of other spring half marathons to choose from. No apologies from Reading HM yet? Do they even care? Date of review: March 3, 2014

In short: The race itself is great but.....In full: last year and this year the queue to collect baggage was horrendous, that,s not to say the guys doing the baggage did not do a good job, they were simply overwhelmed with the amount of people taking part. It may be an idea next year to split the baggage collection into 1-5000 and 5000 ect instead of 1-10,000 to help also queuing for nearly 2 hours for a shuttle bus was not good and may have put me off returning for 2015. The positives were that the whole of Reading turns out to support as always. One of the biggest medals i have ever got and a free finishers t shirt in the goody bag. Due to the numbers taking part i would treat this as a fun event though and just enjoy the day as you cannot get a clear run-I may return but only if there are no other halfd on the same day though and the organisers respond to peoples comments regarding the horrendous bag collection queue and unacceptable wait for the shuttle buses-we,ll see.Date of review: March 3, 2014

In short: Possibly too big for its own goodIn full: It was interesting to have run this race once for the stadium finish but, with so many other half marathons taking place in the South East in the spring, I am unlikely to run this again. I was fortunate to be able to make use of the Mizuno organised facilities so wasn't affected by the baggage problems in the main race village but the massive queues for the bus shuttle in the cold and wind were not a good end.Date of review: March 3, 2014

In short: First Reading Half. Would I do it again ? Only if they sort out the post race kit pick upIn full: Mt first Reading half and first mass participation race, so wasn't sure what to expect as normally only do races up to a few thousand entrants. Organisation was good at the start ( I was in the yellow zone, so had space to warm up). Course is varied with good support throughout most of it. Finish in the stadium makes it special but then things start to fall apart. Without repeating the horror stories of other kit collection comments. A simple solution to speed it up. No need to separate Men and Women kit tents (there's no changing going on). Randomise number allocation so not all the 1- 5000 runners are trying to pick up their kit from one single entry point in one of the tents. Date of review: March 3, 2014

In short: Huge race, brilliant eventIn full: Didn't realise just how big this event was and I loved it, great atmosphere, great everything and a HUGE medal, thank you Reading.Date of review: March 3, 2014